# Yiru Yao

> Yiru Yao is a San Francisco-based software engineer and founding FDE at Glean. A Carnegie Mellon electrical and computer engineering graduate, she has built across mobile software, embedded systems, AI prototypes, and even a student fashion collection. Her public work is distinguished by candid experimentation: during a 2025 career sabbatical, she documented the costs, failures, and practical lessons of using AI tools to make a digital bookshelf, smart-home objects, and a cocktail-inventory app.

- **Role:** Founding FDE at Glean
- **Organizations:** Glean, Carnegie Mellon University
- **Education:** Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University
- **Known for:** Selected for Carnegie Mellon University's Innovation Scholars Program in 2014., Won the Coolest App award at iOS DevCamp 2015 for Deep Dreamer., Participated in 21 hackathons listed on Devpost across mobile, web, hardware, and context-aware computing.

## Career timeline

- **2014** — Named to Carnegie Mellon's Innovation Scholars Program.
- **2015** — Built Deep Dreamer, a photo-filter app that won the Coolest App award at iOS DevCamp 2015; also created hackathon projects including WhichCupcake and a Kinect-controlled quadcopter.
- **2016** — Completed a degree in electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon; co-built the Acoustic Phantom embedded system and co-designed the Dauntless collection for CMU's Lunar Gala.
- **2025** — Took a career sabbatical focused on systematic AI learning and documented practical projects including a digital bookshelf, smart-home experiments, and a home bar app.
- **2026** — Listed as founding FDE at Glean in the San Francisco Bay Area.

## Achievements

- Selected for Carnegie Mellon University's Innovation Scholars Program in 2014.
- Won the Coolest App award at iOS DevCamp 2015 for Deep Dreamer.
- Participated in 21 hackathons listed on Devpost across mobile, web, hardware, and context-aware computing.
- Co-created Dauntless, a 2016 Carnegie Mellon Lunar Gala fashion collection pairing floral elements with armor-like structure.
- Built and openly documented multiple end-to-end AI prototypes during a 2025 career sabbatical.

## Latest updates

- **2026-09** — Works at Glean as a founding FDE in the San Francisco Bay Area.
- **2025-09** — Published a detailed account of building an AI-powered home bar app and open-sourced the project.
- **2025-08** — Published a structured AI-learning plan and a digital bookshelf project built from 57 reading notes.

## Links

- Website: https://medium.com/@yiruyao
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yiruyao
- GitHub: https://github.com/yiruyao

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/yiru-yao
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-09-26